A question...

That is the question of this poll ;)

I speaketh Americanch. We dropped many extraneous letters and modified the spellings to make it appear we have our own language . We had hoped for more independence but the truth is we like to play Scrabble with the Oxford nearby .
  It's spelled more than one way but we love it when we find it.
Can you say aluminum ?

Is that pronounced the same as:

Helum

Lithum

Beryllum

Sodum

Magnesum

Potassum

Calcum

Scandum

Titanum

Vanadum

Chromum

Gallum

Germanum

Selenum

Rubidum

Strontum

Yttrum

Zirconum

Niobum

Technetum

Ruthenum

Rhodum

Palladum

Cadmum

Indum

Tellurum

Cesum

Barum

Cerum

Praseodymum

Neodymum

Promethum

Samarum

Europum

Gadolinum

Terbum

Dysprosum

Holmum

Erbum

Thulum

Ytterbum

Lutetum

Hafnum

Rhenum

Osmum

Iridum

Thallum

Polonum

Francum

Radum

Actinum

Thorum

Protactinum

Uranum

Neptunum

Plutonum

Americum

Curum

Berkelum

Californum

Einsteinum

Fermum

Mendelevum

Nobelum

Lawrencum

Rutherfordum

Dubnum

Seaborgum

Bohrum

Hassum

Meitnerum

  ?

I couldn't vote because this poll is flawed. I was raised to spell it both ways . Do I forsake the love of British influence or stay with my common American understandings ?

Only an Irishman could create such a conundrum and feel very good about the results. 

I spell it "Hummer"

Just like your mother gave me last night Trebek, Ha ha ha!

Perhaps the emporour, chancellour, or govenour made an errour. The terrour and horrour were too much to bear without a sense of humour.

FYI, most words ending with or/our come from Latin words that end with or. It was the French who added the u and introduced it into English during the Norman invasion. The British liked it so much, they even added it to words not deriving from Latin/French (armour, behaviour, neighbour, etc.). I guess, deep down inside, they long to be French.


As for aluminum (from Wikipedia): Humphry Davy, the element's discoverer, first proposed the name alumium, and then later aluminum.

If the guy wanted to call it davynum, we would have called it that. It's his discovery, so he gets to name it (American belief).

As for the pronunciation of schedule, our scholars developed a scheme in which our schools would teach it properly. Perhaps British shools have different shemes.



As you can tell, having lived in Britain for four years, I've grown a little tired of Brits taking the piss out of American spelling and/or pronunciation. So, I like to give it back a little, innit?

BTW, can you correctly pronounce Michigan (it's not Mitch Again), Arkansas (it's not Are Kansas), and Maryland (it's not Merry Land)?




Edited by CerebralVortex - 11/13/09 at 7:34am

I find this pole humorous
Edited by tylrwnzl - 11/13/09 at 7:45am

 I'm in Favour of Spelling it correctly!